LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox keeps getting asked what it feels like to win the Kentucky Derby the way he did. “More than 100 times,” said Cox. “Maybe not 200, but yeah, a lot.” It’s a running count. Cox was speaking more than a week before the 148th Kentucky Derby was to be run Saturday at Churchill Downs, before the onslaught of media and racing fans and anyone else with a larynx had gotten a chance to ask. Suffice it to say that the highly unconventional way in which Cox won the 2021 Derby lends itself to innocent curiosity, and the same tired question was sure to be asked dozens of more times, at the least. Cox, of course, won the 2021 Derby more than nine months after the fact, when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Feb. 21 disqualified the first-place finisher, Medina Spirit, for a raceday medication violation. Mandaloun, ridden by Florent Geroux and trained by Cox for the colt’s owner-breeder, Juddmonte Farms, was elevated from second to first with the ruling. It was like winning the World Series without the champagne, the Indianapolis 500 without the milk, the NCAA basketball championship without cutting down the nets. Just so that nobody has to bother Cox any further, this is his stock answer: “It’s not how you want to win the Derby. There was really no thrill of victory. I mean, it’s great and everything, but we’d obviously like to win it to experience all that comes with winning the Derby.” To that end, Cox has wasted absolutely no time. In fact, the 42-year-old Louisville native has three starters in the 2022 Derby – Cyberknife, Zozos, and Tawny Port. He’d dearly love one of them to win, thereby hitting the pause button on all the talk about asterisks and such. Cyberknife, owned by Al Gold, “has accomplished the most of the three,” Cox said, referring to the April 2 Arkansas Derby victory by the chestnut Gun Runner colt. “I love the way he’s been training over this racetrack,” Cox said. “He’s a colt with a lot of talent, a lot of potential. He’s overcome some of his immature ways and developed into a very capable racehorse.” Zozos, owned by Barry and Joni Butzow, was second in the March 26 Louisiana Derby after winning his first two starts. “I like him a tremendous amount, too, even though he’s a little short on experience,” said Cox. “He’s a very intelligent horse, and hopefully that’ll help make up for him only having three starts. He’s really thrived since the Louisiana Derby, and with six weeks between races, that could be a recipe for a move forward.” Tawny Port, owned by the Peachtree Stable of John Fort, “is going to have to improve his numbers,” Cox said, alluding to a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure, a tad shy of the top Beyers recorded by some of the Derby favorites. Tawny Port won the April 16 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, with Cox noting he ran wide on both turns and finished well in the 1 1/16-mile race. “I think he’ll get a mile and a quarter,” Cox said. “He came out of it good, looks well. I’m happy with him, too.” Three Derby starters in one year is a notable feat – the record is five, shared by D. Wayne Lukas, Nick Zito, and Todd Pletcher – and further highlights the remarkable career arc that Cox finds himself ascending. Growing up just blocks from Churchill, where his late father, Jerry, would take him to the races as a tot, Cox long has aspired to be a successful trainer. After working for several other trainers straight out of high school, he went on his own in 2004, toiling in relative obscurity for about a decade until major clients started calling. His annual wins and stable earnings have grown by leaps and bounds. Cox’s first graded stakes win came in 2014, and his first Grade 1 victory came in 2018 with the first of his five Eclipse Award champions, Monomoy Girl. :: Kentucky Derby Headquarters: Get the latest news, info on contenders, past performances, picks, and more  Everything has snowballed from there. Monomoy Girl (2018) and Shedaresthedevil (2020) have given him two Kentucky Oaks wins. He has won eight Breeders’ Cup races in the last four years, including a record-tying four at Keeneland in 2020 and last year’s BC Classic with Knicks Go at Del Mar. His 2021 stable earnings of $31.8 million are an all-time single-season record, and he has been awarded with the Eclipse for outstanding trainer in 2020 and 2021. The Derby, however, has been its own separate thing. His first starters only came last year, with Mandaloun and the race favorite Essential Quality, a two-time Eclipse winner who eventually was awarded third in the Derby after finishing fourth. Cox has three sons – Bryson, 24, and Blake, 21, both of them key lieutenants in his far-flung racing operation, and Brodie, 6. To celebrate a Derby victory with all of them, “That’d be the way to do it,” said Cox. He has three chances Saturday, although surely they won’t be his last. Asked if he expects to have three Derby runners every year, he joked, wide-eyed: “Three or more!” In a more serious vein he said: “It’s an accomplishment in its own right, a testament to our staff and owners. We get outstanding horses to train, and it’s our job to capitalize on it. Whatever happens Saturday, I feel extremely fortunate.”